Imagine a future where, with the push of a button, your customers could summon a mechanic right to their own driveway or even forecast an impending vehicle failure with a tiny implant into their engines brain. In our rapidly evolving, tech-transformative universe these possibilities are not only on the horizon of the automotive world, they have arrived on the doorstep.

The vast majority of consumers today shop online. There's no shortage of great websites and online tools for searching, researching, and comparing various products. Most of them work equally as well from a desktop computer or mobile device. The key factor to success for many of these websites and tools is a top-notch user interface (UI) that's intuitive and allows each consumer to create their own shopping experience.

NADA 100 is just under a month away and it’s time to start putting together an agenda. Your schedule will likely be jam-packed with meetings and workshops to attend… and miles of walking from point A to point B. However, if you can find time in your busy schedules to fit in some additional activities, there’s no shortage of fun things to do in New Orleans.

Have you ever thought about starting a mobile auto repair business? Or as a vehicle owner, have you thought about how convenient it would be for mechanics to perform vehicle services right at your home?

Today’s vehicle shoppers are much different than vehicle shoppers pre-internet. You’ve probably heard this more than you can recall, yet still, many consumers are not satisfied with the current car shopping process. Your potential customers are looking for an efficient vehicle shopping and purchasing experience similar to the rest of their shopping experiences.

Ride- and car-sharing are two services that have really blown up over the last few years. The ability to conveniently and affordably arrange for a ride or book a vehicle right from an application on your smartphone is too good not to catch on.

Many sources believe that ride- and car-sharing are presenting a threat to the auto industry, primarily OEM and dealership sales. Though the industry will change, they certainly are not doomed!

Vehicle technology is not only becoming more widespread and more affordable each model year, but increasingly more complex. And with that, it can be difficult for vehicle shoppers --and even vehicle marketers-- to distinguish between the common technologies on offer. This could be attributed to the marketing names given by the OEMs or their nuances in functionality.

VIN Decoding 101: Part 2

What's in the VIN?

This post has been republished with updates since its original publish date in November 2011

As we discussed in the preceding article, What is a VIN, there are two ISO documents that established the 17 digit VIN standard and the WMI section of the VIN. However, these documents were only recommendations. The VIN standard created by the NHTSA and enforced starting with the model year (MY) 1981, was required of all vehicles manufactured for use in the US and was much more stringent in its requirements.

In a previous blog article, we highlighted a few ways in which a VIN decoder can add value to fleet management software. So, we thought it'd be helpful to have a fleet management software provider offer further insight on the subject.

In this guest post, Lori Higdon from Fleetio has taken a deeper dive into how VIN decoding can increase the efficiency of fleet management. Without further ado: